Our sports reporter adds attitude and brings a different flavor to his sports coverage.

Blackhawks will need IceHogs even more if luck turns against em

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By Jay Taft

Jay Taft adds attitude and brings a different flavor to his sports coverage. In his 10-plus years at the Rockford Register Star, he has managed to sprinkle in his own style of reporting while dealing with a wide variety of sports. While breaking
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Jay Taft adds attitude and brings a different flavor to his sports coverage. In his 10-plus years at the Rockford Register Star, he has managed to sprinkle in his own style of reporting while dealing with a wide variety of sports. While breaking down youth and high school athletics (from pint-sized football to prep girls swimming), all manners of college sports, extreme and action sports and now the Chicago Bears, Taft likes to tell the entire story, leaving nothing to the imagination.

So is bad luck finally catching up to the Chicago Blackhawks a little bit, and will it really begin to show through on the injury report as well as in the loss column?

After earning a point in 24 straight games to open the season, Chicago dropped its first game on Friday. Now the Blackhawks will host Edmonton tonight, and we shall see if they stop the bleeding immediately, or if the breaks start to go the other way for a stretch. I will be there, talking to the players and coaches after it's all over, to find out firsthand.

Usually, as injuries begin to pile up, so do the losses. But that is when the program’s AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs, can really come into play. While the IceHogs’ system has been praised ever since the 2010 Stanley Cup for preparing players for the step up to the NHL, it’s true worth is tested when the Blackhawks’ fall into tough times.

Is that coming? Patrick Sharp is out 3-4 weeks with an upper-body injury that appears to be shoulder-related, and the first loss came hard, the form of a 6-2 beating in Colorado.

But, Rockford (30-26-1-1) has won eight of its last nine games, and Chicago (21-1-3), well if you didn’t pay attention to the Blackhawks’ 24-game unbeaten streak to open the season, you aren’t much of a sports’ fan. So it’s very hard to say either team is hurting right now.

I will be tweeting from the Blackhawks home game tonight, and am as anxious as you to see how the ‘Hawks handle their first loss. Will they need the IceHogs more than ever in the coming days, or will they get back on track quickly, and begin their glide again.

One thing’s for sure, both of these teams could be in for a special run over the next couple of months.